How will you feel when you turn on your phone and you see a totally new theme and interface, all your icons unrecognizable and some even deleted? That’s more or less how F1 fans currently feel about the new logo that the company is sporting. To them, it is unwanted, unloved, ugly.

But that’s their sense of comfort-ability with the old logo reacting, we all know in the next few months the new logo will grow on them. It’s already growing on me as a matter of fact. Reason? I’ve seen more of the new logo than the old in the last few days and now, it’s looking much better than the first time I saw it. That’s human psychology in play; show a picture as many times as you can and it becomes accepted, even seen as “not too bad”.

With this new logo, Liberty has taken a bold step that hopefully, will result in a generally positive outlook of the sports in the next seasons. This is actually no surprise. Since Liberty bought the commercial rights of the company (from Bernie Ecclestone for a whooping 6billion dollars), it has been making some, albeit minor, changes.

The thrill of F1 has reduced to a sputter in recent years, leaving behind wisps of the personality of the sport and disengaging the gear of new fan acquisition. Even, old fans don’t feel the same level of euphoria, sense of daring and excitement as before. Case in point, the recently concluded 2017 season which is described as uneventful as watching the thousandth rerun of your favourite film. Therefore, something has to be done to catch the interest of as many as possible and get a nice spark from the F1 lovers. And what better way to achieve this than hitting at a major identity of the sport?

Logo redesign is something brands and companies have to do from time to time whether to acquire new customers and/or reconnect with old ones. The key however is knowing the right time to do it. Usually, it is done when there’s change in ownership and rights, just like the recent case of 9Mobile (nee Etisalat). It is also done when a new life needs to be injected into a brand to get it more “mouth coverage” and to keep a brand’s outlook updated and in sync with the current trends in its industry. For instance, there was a time in the design industry when everyone was all up for clunky fonts, colours and oval shapes. Now the trend is minimalism, negative space and parallel lines. Imagine Google still using their logo from fifteen years back, wouldn’t that be like you asking your ancestor for a selfie?

Yes, people will talk and protest but when a new logo (or logo facelift) is needed for your brand/company, then do it. Afterall, will you advertise new cereal in a faded old box? I think not.